Free Printable May Day, Labor History, Union Organizing Lesson Plans

Spring
is a poignant time in labor history. March 25, 1911 remembers 146 workers, mostly women, lost in the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. April 16 mourns Ireland's Easter Rising of
slain Feinians. April 28 marks Workers' Memorial Day, on which the organized labor movement pays tribute to the fallen in workplace accidents
or in organized labor struggles. May 1 is May Day,
honoring International Workers' Day. May 4 commemorates casualties at Chicago's
Haymarket riot at a 1886 labor rally. May 19, 1920 is a day when the
organized labor movement grieves the Matewan and Mingo County
massacre of coal miners. On May 26, 1937 those who would from unions were assaulted at
Ford's River Rouge plant "Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.

Organized
labor history is taught as part of American history, but there is no American
(or world) history without labor history. Unions, collective bargaining--the
fight for workers' rights impact every industry, occupation and person.
Teachers and homeschoolers, you can educate students about unions with these
free printable May Day and labor history lesson plans. These links include
websites, activities, worksheets, movies and books on the organized labor
movement.

The
National Endowment for the Humanities offers two companion lessons in its
series The Industrial Age in America. "Sweatshops, Steel
Mills and Factories"
and "Robber Barons and
Captains of Industry"
define the problems faced by workers in labor history and the reasons for the
organized labor movement. Use the worksheets and activities with middle school
and high school students.

The
Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University
in Detroit maintains the largest organized labor history archive in the U.S. It
has an impressive collection of images in physical exhibits and digital
archives onThe Labor Movement and Organizations. It also maintains a labor history document base. The library is named for the leaders of UAW
(United Auto Workers) and CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) unions
Walter Reuther who was one of several injured at Ford's Rouge factory
"Battle of the Overpass" in Detroit.

The United Farm Workers is the union begun by Cesar Chavez that tends to itinerant
and agricultural labor issues. Along with labor movement, the UFW educates
people about food safety, immigration, deportation, earth and green
initiatives, pesticides and more. An important piece is the youth activism
page. UFW seeks to take union and agricultural awareness beyond the classroom
walls and into real life.

The Wobblies is a documentary about the IWW (the
Industrial Workers of the World). The IWW is a world-wide union that seeks to
organize all workers regardless of occupation. This authoritative video is
engaging and covers a broad labor perspective. It helps students understand the
differences between business, trade and collective unions. The IWW honors May
Day as the real Labor Day.

In
honor of May Day, here's a quote from the Albert Shanker
Institute. "Imagine opening
a high school U.S. history textbook and finding no mention of-or at most a
passing sentence about-Valley Forge, the Missouri Compromise...Benjamin
Franklin, Lewis and Clark. Imagine if these key events and people just
disappeared as if they'd never existed...That is what has happened in history
textbooks when it comes to labor's part in the American story." Use these
lesson plans to keep the May Day stories and message alive.